Halal restaurant Hangry opens in New Hyde Park
The mac 'n cheese and barbecued potato chip-stuffed Mac Daddy burger at Hangry, a new eatery in New Hyde Park. Credit: Newsday/Scott Vogel
Of the many possible responses to a drop in blood-glucose levels, none is quite so colorful, so of-the-moment, as being hangry. Hangry is hot. Science will tell you that there are physiological explanations for hanger (hangriness?) — that is, the overwhelming irritation one feels when deprived of food for too long (something about cortisol and neuropeptides). As we all know, this irritation often ends in aggression directed at those who don’t deserve it, even though we could have been at dinner a half-hour ago if you hadn’t dawdled in the bathroom.
Anyway, being hangry is a real thing, and so is Hangry, a new eatery in New Hyde Park that is itself colorful and of-the-moment. The five-tables-and-take-out establishment, which opened Jan. 24 and as of this writing does not yet have its menu online, is a halal place with something extra. That something extra? Pizza, burgers, hot dogs, presswiches and more.
“It’s like a halal carnival,” said my dinner companion, referring not just to Hangry’s menu but its fun, splashy décor. Lime green walls are brightly painted with 1950s-style comic book drawings of icons past and present: Al Pacino circa “Scarface,” DC villain Harley Quinn, the Joker, Walter White of “Breaking Bad” and more. “Hip” and “chill” and “sick” are among the terms early diners have used to describe Hangry, which is already developing a young and loyal crowd, and the food has met with similar praise.
The most popular presswich so far, it seems, is something called the Heisenburg ($8.49), a chicken cutlet panini tarted up with mozzarella cheese sticks, French fries and more. Whatever uncertainty (har har) our table might have had about the Heisenburg was quickly dispelled after a few bites. There was a juicy unusualness to it, but it worked.
Almost as tasty was the Mac Daddy burger, in which good quality beef sits on a thin spackling of mac ’n cheese. Atop the beef are some strips of bacon, and atop that a layer of — why not? — barbecued potato chips. It all makes for a rather unwieldy sandwich that quickly collapses after a few bites, and I can’t say I’d been hangry for such a flavor combination. Then again, none of that stopped me from eating the whole thing in a matter of minutes.
Still to try on the 100%-halal menu: a hotdog called My Little Friend ($5) dressed with peppers and crumbled Kurkure, an Indian chip that tastes like curry-flavored Cheetos; five flavors of wings; several pizzas by the slice; and Ju Wanna Play Ruff, which might be the gruffest name ever assigned to a veggie sandwich (tomato, mushrooms, pesto and mozzarella).
But our first meal was pleasant enough. Our glucose numbers having returned to baseline, we departed calm, collected, and totally mystified as to what we were hangry about it in the first place.
Hangry is at 725 Hillside Ave. in New Hyde Park, 516-629-7102. Opening hours are 10 a.m. to 10 p.m., seven days a week.
Newsday writer and restaurant critic Scott Vogel aims for a refreshing, gimlet-eyed take on the Long Island food scene, often while drinking a refreshing gimlet.
